KP govt moves Supreme Court seeking to stop FIA probe of Peshawar BRT

[Xestan]

KP govt moves Supreme Court seeking to stop FIA probe of Peshawar BRT

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the Peshawar High Court's order directing the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe alleged irregularities in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project within 45 days.

The KP government submitted a request in the Supreme Court's Peshawar registry while the PDA submitted another petition in the apex court, challenging the high court order.

Earlier this month, a five-member special inquiry team of the FIA, KP, had started its probe into alleged irregularities in the Peshawar BRT in line with the court's directives.

On December 6, KP advocate general Shumail Ahmad Butt said the government had prepared a civil petition for leave to appeal (CPLA) against the high court judgment delivered on November 14 that would be filed in the apex court next week.

He said the CPLA had raised different legal points about the PHC order besides questioning the suo motu powers of the high court bench.

A high court bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ahmad Ali had in November decided three petitions related to the BRT project affairs.

Two petitioners, including Fazal Karim Afridi and Adnan Afridi, had challenged the raising of different structures of the project adjacent to their houses in Hayatabad Township.

Another petitioner, advocate Isa Khan, had requested the court to order the construction of overhead bridges or under-passes for pedestrians at distances of not more than 100 meters.

The bench had formulated 35 points, asking the FIA to probe the mega project and act against delinquents if found in the inquiry report.

NAB proceedings halted
A high court bench headed by Justice Seth had also ordered the National Accountability Bureau on Jul 17, 2018, to conduct a proper investigation and inquiry into the BRT affairs. However, the provincial government and PDA had filed the CPLA with the Supreme Court, requesting to set aside the said order.

As a Supreme Court bench headed by the then chief justice, Mian Saqib Nisar, had suspended the high court’s order on Sept 4, 2018, findings of NAB’s inquiry didn’t see the light of day.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1524118

 

[ejaz007]

FIA submits report on BRT to PHC

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PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday submitted the probe report on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project to the Peshawar High Court, a source told The News.

A bench of the Peshawar High Court headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth had in November, last year, directed the FIA authorities to probe the 35 BRT points. The court, in a judgment in different petitions, had directed the agency to complete the investigation in 45 days. The source said the FIA submitted the report in the office of the PHC registrar on Friday. The project was probed from all angles the top officials of the departments concerned, consultants and contractors questioned. A five-member inquiry team headed by Deputy Director Rizwan Shah was assigned the task to conduct the inquiry into the project. The FIA was directed by the court to look into various points including the total cost of 27.37 kilometers road project that was estimated at Rs 66.437 billion. With this estimate, the project costs Rs 2.427 billion per kilometer which is exorbitantly high. The agency on the directives of the court inquired as to why three project directors were changed and who decided to buy 220 buses when only 65 were being used in Punjab for a longer route.

Besides, the FIA also probed as to why the project could not be completed in the anticipated one-year period. One of the major flaws of the project, the construction of at-grade corridor on the University Road was also probed as it would increase traffic congestion instead of providing ease to the commuters.

The inquiry team was directed to probe as to how many senior officers were paid hefty allowances even though they had no managerial role in the BRT. Arshad Aziz Malik adds: The Supreme Court has fixed Feb 3 for the hearing of the KP government and PDA petition challenging the PHC order of holding inquiry into BRT by FIA.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/607312-fia-submits-report-on-brt-to-phc

 

[ejaz007]

AGP rips BRT project apart in report

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ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan in his latest audit report on BRT Peshawar documented losses, wastages, unauthorized variations, irregular payments of billions of rupees and observed that the project’s planning was faulty and construction work started in the absence of detailed engineering design.

A copy of the report shared with The News by an official source in the KP government shows that the ADB had well in time identified the risk that “political pressure to fast-track the project due to General Elections 2018 will undermine both design and implementation of the project”.

The ADB also did not want the DED (Detailed Engineering Design) to be developed on the basis of preliminary design. But still, the provincial government did not care about any such warning and demonstrated that its “planning process was so shallow that it couldn’t even calculate the appropriate and reasonable completion time”. The report said it was seen throughout the construction phase that the narrow route (selected for the project) with very little Right of Way was never the feasible option for the construction of a BRT Corridor. It can now be seen that at various stations the station entrances look very inappropriate with structures standing exactly in front of shops on the University Road and in front of residential streets and house-corners inside Hayatabad Township.

Premature procurement of buses for the BRT worth US$7.9 million may end up with expiry of the warranty period of these buses, the audit report said, adding that wear and tear will also occur with no fare revenue from these buses. While the buses which have already arrived face wear and tear without having been used, there is another awkward situation — non-supply of 169 BRT buses worth US$ 33m — that has arisen because of faulty timelines given for project completion. The report said the project was conceived in 2013-14 but proper planning was not in place to foresee scenario over the coming years- 2017 to 2019- when BRT corridor construction would take place.

The report said, “With regard to the projects undertaken during the BRT Corridor Preliminary Design and later on during the Detailed Engineering Design (DED) stages, the audit observation was justified to term all expenditure wasteful which resulted from lack of vision in the planning process.”

The report pointed out unauthorized variations of Rs10.4 billion; loss of Rs200 million due to payment of excess quantity of pile concrete; loss of Rs54.8 million due to non-recovery of cost of dismantled material; payment of Rs95 million as salaries without approved pay structure; non-deposit of profit worth Rs12 million into government treasury earned from saving account; unauthorized payment of Rs45 million to officers; interest worth Rs12 million earned not reflected in financial statement; contradiction in approved PC-I and business model regarding annual subsidy of Rs1.6 billion; wasteful expenditure of Rs716 million on beautification, construction of roads and electrification; premature procurement of BRT buses spending US$ 7.9 million; the warranty period of these buses may expire as well as wear and tear will occur with no fare revenue from these buses; loss of Rs10 million due to depreciation of buses waiting to be brought on road; construction supervision contract worth Rs615 million and US$1.97 million awarded without fulfilling the criteria for performance assessment; non-implementation of penalty/liquidated damages worth Rs1.9 billion etc.

According to the report, “An email extract of December 2016 shared with the auditors indicated that ADB did not want the DED (Detailed Engineering Design) to be developed on the basis of the preliminary design.” Lack of planning was further evident from the fact that in its aide-memoire dated 25th September 2017, the ADB had stated that while the DED was still under-preparation, the provincial government somehow got the original PC-I approved well below the ADB estimates of USD 587 million. Likewise the preliminary design, the report said, the DED consultants were also not allowed appropriate completion time which is normally allowed for detailed engineering designing of the projects of such magnitude.

The DED contract starting in Feb 2017 was supposed to be completed in Feb 2018 but due to unnecessary urgency imposed on the project, the civil works were initiated in November 2017 when complete designs were not even available.

The ADB was cautious about all these issues and for that reason on page number 29 of the Project Administration Manual, it had identified the risk that “political pressure to fast-track the project due to General Elections 2018 will undermine both design and implementation of the project”.

It again demonstrates that the provincial planning process was so shallow that it couldn’t even calculate the appropriate and reasonable completion time. The ADB cannot be blamed for all this because they have discharged their obligation by identifying the risk well before the start of the civil works. Planning lapses have been observed throughout the project implementation. These include pre-mature delivery of fleet. Import of fleet for the purpose of test runs and training drivers resulted in loss due to bus maintenance cost from being kept idle for most of the time. Design flaws and poor quality of work as pointed-out by Project Management Unit and ADB can be linked-to planning failure as this led to civil works being started before the finalization of DED. Another planning failure relates to the financial viability of the project and the TransPeshwar BoD meeting held on 16th May 2018 wherein various subsidy options were considered.

The report said poor designing and ill-planning affected the project negatively, the human resource and materials were not procured according to the project guidelines, the key components of reporting, financial management, and quality controls were also found missing. The audit found that authorities failed to adopt the Financial Management Manual for the sound financial management of the project, as advised by the ADB.

The reporting requirements were not followed as described in the agreement. The quality control and monitoring framework was not in place as required. No contract system was developed. The timelines and schedules have been revised many times and still, any completion date does not seem realistic in near future. Also not a single bus stop has been built on the feeder routes so far and ADB’s representatives in their visit of 5th April, 2019, have also down concerns over this slow progress. The problems of poor designing and low quality of civil works were frequently reported.

According to the loan agreement between the ADB and the government, the project is expected to be completed by June 2021. However, unrealistic completion deadlines were given in disregard of the ADB apprehensions. The initial cost of the project as approved was Rs49.34 billion which was later revised to Rs66.4 billion.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/610251-agp-rips-brt-project-apart-in-report

 

[Sine Nomine]

Areey Bahi itna sanata kiyo hai yahan

 

[Old School]

The chance is high that KP govt. will win and the vicious circle continues.